Ugh. This probably isn’t the way Lovie Smith wanted to start his tenure at the U of I.
Try as we might, Illini sports just can’t catch a break. Yesterday, receiver-phenom Mike Dudek tore his ACL exactly a year (to the god damn day) from his first ACL tear. According to reports, it is the same knee as last year, and he will miss the entirety of the upcoming season.
With Geronimo Allison graduated, Malik Turner seems to be the only receiver left on the Fighting Illini football team with any extensive experience, which may mean bad things for Wes Lunt and Lovie Smith’s squad come fall, especially when Big Ten play rolls around.
There’s no telling if Dudek will be able to return after this season or not, but for the sake of both him and my own Illini fandom, I hope against hope that he’ll be able to rebound from this, and that we’ll be able to see him sport the orange and blue again, as soon as possible.